Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosanna Tavarez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m happy to share my LA story:
At 22, I was entering my final year of graduate school at The Ohio State University, with only my thesis project remaining to complete my MFA in Choreography. After a university-funded research trip studying Afro-Dominican dance and music, I stopped in Miami to visit my parents. While there, I came across an audition notice for a girl group in the local paper.
Although I had envisioned moving to New York City to dance with a contemporary company, choreograph, and eventually teach, I had also nurtured a love for singing and commercial dance. I decided to audition. After a callback, I was flown to Los Angeles along with 26 other finalists — out of 3,000 auditioners nationwide, five of us were ultimately selected, and I was honored to be one of them.
It was an extraordinary opportunity: legendary producer David Foster served as Executive Producer for our album. The journey — from audition to recording our first album to our debut concert — was captured in the reality series “Popstars” (WB, 2001). We toured across the U.S., sharing the stage with major acts of the era, including NSYNC. It was a wild, thrilling ride.
When the group disbanded after about a year (following our label’s closure), I shifted into entertainment television, hosting shows and specials on Telemundo and its sister network MUN2 in Miami. After six months, I signed with William Morris Agency and soon moved back to LA to join Ryan Seacrest as the Entertainment News Reporter for “On Air with Ryan Seacrest”.
Over the next decade, I worked as an entertainment host for TV Guide Network, E! Online and SiTV. I had the pleasure of interviewing many celebrities and covered events like the Grammys, Emmys, and Oscars. Throughout, I continued to take dance classes in LA — and increasingly felt the pull back to the dance world.
At 32, I completed my MFA at Ohio State, left entertainment behind, and painstakingly rebuilt my life as a performer, choreographer, and educator. It was a risky transition — stepping away from an industry many come to LA to pursue — but I knew I would regret it if I didn’t center dance in my life again. I am deeply grateful every day for the opportunity to live and create as a dance artist.
Since then, I’ve taught at universities across the U.S., most recently at USC Kaufman, and currently serve as the BFA Program Director at CalArts. I also travel nationally and internationally to teach and choreograph. This summer, I will co-facilitate the Countertechnique “One Body, One Career” summer intensive in Amsterdam alongside its founder, Anouk Van Dijk.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has not been smooth — but it has taught me profound lessons in resilience, adaptability, and patience.
When I transitioned back to dance, I also went through a divorce. It felt like everything in my life had been razed to the ground, and I was starting from scratch.
To support myself while rebuilding, I worked a day job and earned a 500-hour yoga teacher certification. I began teaching yoga classes while creating new dance works. A few years later, I secured my first university teaching position, which became a crucial foundation for my growth as a dance artist.
Those early years felt fragile yet exhilarating — like building a life based firmly on my own values and reconnecting with my true calling.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Since my time as a college student, I have been deeply interested in researching and choreographing works that explore cultural heritage and ancestral lineage.
My first research trips — to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic — were supported by mentors who nurtured this curiosity.
As the daughter of two Dominican parents, I have long grappled with the complexities of a tripartite identity — African, Indigenous, and European — common to many Caribbean people. These layered histories continue to inform my work, particularly in how they live in the body and are transmitted across families, communities, and societies.
I am especially drawn to examining how feminine creativity, resistance, and resilience manifest in women of color.
As I grow my choreographic work, I remain committed to deepening these inquiries and bringing them to life onstage.
You can learn more about my work at rosannatavarez.com or on Instagram @rosannatavarezdance.
Any big plans?
Creatively, I am excited about my new project, “AREITO”.
This contemporary dance-theater work weaves together the Lakota myth “The Old Woman in a Cave” and the story of Taíno cacica (chief) Anacaona. It explores themes of creation, destruction, the early colonization of Kiskeya/Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and the enduring power of Afro-Indigenous women.
“AREITO” has brought extraordinary collaborators into my life, each contributing sensitivity and artistry. Through this project, I’m learning the value of slowing down — of resisting the urge for rapid “output” and instead honoring a more organic, deliberate creative process.
I’m grateful for the support the work has received from CalArts and the Center for New Performance, and I’m looking forward to continuing to collaborate with members of the Taíno and Lakota communities, BIPOC communities, artist mentors, and organizations as the piece evolves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rosannatavarez.com
- Instagram: @rosannatavarezdance
Image Credits
Doug McMinimy
Gema Galiana
Aleksey Bochkovsky
Bryce Pinkos
CalArts Photo Team
